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Anderson: Concerns Regarding Proposed State Park in Oregon County

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.The chair of the House Conservation and Natural Resources Committee recently voiced her concerns with a proposed state park in Oregon County. State Rep. Sonya Murray Anderson participated in a panel Monday in West Plains to discuss the numerous concerns voiced by the public, as well as state and local officials, regarding the new park proposed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

“It’s clear the people of Oregon County have no interest in a new state park, and the residents in the counties impacted by ASARCO mining would greatly prefer to keep the settlement money for important remediation projects such as for clean drinking water,” said Anderson, R-Springfield. “My goal as the chair of the natural resources committee is to continue to press the governor’s office and the department on this issue so that they will hopefully do the right thing and back away from this flawed proposal.”

The panel discussed the process by which the trustees of the ASARCO settlement determined it was appropriate to use settlement funds to acquire land several counties away and in a different watershed. The ASARCO settlement funds were intended to be utilized to remediate the damage done by the ASARCO mining conglomerate at five sites in southeast Missouri’s lead mining district, which includes St. Francois, Reynolds, Iron and Madison counties.